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Irish Water Staff

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 January 2014

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Questions (148)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

148. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the staffing plans for Irish Water; if he is satisfied that Irish Water will not be overstaffed and will operate efficiently; if he will provide a county breakdown of staffing details where former local authority staff have been or are planned to be employed by Irish Water, if he will give the overall staffing cost for water services departments nationwide in 2013; the overall staffing cost of the provision of water, post the establishment of Irish Water; if any agreements were made with unions in relation to the staffing of Irish Water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4776/14]

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Written answers

Irish Water is being established to accelerate capital investment in water services and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water services delivery. The organisation needs to be appropriately resourced to fulfil this task and will not be over-staffed. Irish Water is currently recruiting to build up the required internal capabilities and the number of staff employed is an operational matter for the organisation. It was agreed by the Steering Group for the Water Sector Reform programme that, to ensure skills within the sector were fully availed of in building up the new organisation, competitions for positions in asset management, capital delivery and operations would be restricted to staff in the partner organisations i.e. Bord Gáis Éireann, local authorities and my Department in the first instance. Open competitions are held for all other positions and details of these are available on Irish Water’s website.

Data supplied by Irish Water indicate that at present 310 staff appointments have been made in Irish Water. In total 107 staff from the local authority sector have been employed and are based in the following area offices: 

Region

Office

No.

HQ Dublin

HQ

47

East & Midlands

Foley St.

12

 -

Mullingar

7

South

Limerick

7

 -

Kilkenny

3

 -

Mallow

10

North & West

Cavan

4

 -

Castlebar

13

 -

Donegal

4

My Department is currently finalising the Budget for operational costs for 2014 with Irish Water which will determine the overall staffing costs. The final number of staff employed directly by Irish Water will be determined having regard to the agreed funding model and the regulation process which takes full account of comparators with other similar utilities.

Irish Water has entered into service level agreements (SLA) with each of the 34 authorities for the provision of water services. Staff in local authorities conducting work under these arrangements will remain local authority employees. The SLA reflects the transformation agenda required for the sector, with provision for annual service plans which will set out required performance, budgets and headcount. The length of the service level agreement and the fact that the agreement will include a programme of change are reflected in a Framework document, agreed with the Trade Unions under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, and which is available on my Department’s website. This agreement, and the Water Services No.2 Act, 2013 provides that, in the event of a SLA coming to an end, the staff covered by that agreement will become Irish Water employees and their terms and conditions and superannuation arrangements will be protected by legislation.

My Department does not have details of the local authority staff costs in Water Services in 2013. However the headcount provided for Water Services under the SLAs for 2014 is 4319.6 full time equivalents subject to alignment with the budgets notified by Irish Water to each local authority. A table detailing this headcount by authority is set out below. This headcount will be reviewed each year as part of the preparation and approval of the following year's Annual Service Plan.

Local Authority

Total FTE

Carlow

57.6

Clare

144.7

Cork City

101.2

Cork County

392.0

Kerry

229.4

Kilkenny

82.7

Limerick City

33.0

Limerick County

124.5

North Tipperary

88.5

South Tipperary

101.7

Waterford City

42.9

Waterford County

76.5

Wexford

85.0

Total Southern

1,559.7

Cavan

58.3

Donegal

198.3

Galway City

58.0

Galway County

154.8

Leitrim

44.4

Mayo

191.4

Monaghan

56.2

Roscommon

93.3

Sligo

62.8

Total North West

917.5

Dublin City

674.00

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown

99.25

Fingal

238.47

Kildare

180.31

Laois

83.11

Longford

53.05

Louth

68.15

Meath

117.85

Offaly

53.30

South Dublin

129.30

Westmeath

58.68

Wicklow

86.93

Total East Midlands

1,842.40

OVERALL TOTAL

4,319.6

While this number will reduce over time, the actual headcount requirement is intrinsically linked to the levels of investment within the sector in automation, rationalisation and infrastructure and operational upgrades. The establishment of Irish Water will lead to improved efficiency and effectiveness of water services delivery, with consequent reductions in staffing over time.

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